the first harvest

we hadn't even finished weeding the most disgusting looking garden ever when we came upon the first produce of the season. that is right folks. the same garden that is eventually going to be all things amazing and grow enough produce that i will have to start selling it at the farmer's market is also a bunny making factory! and not just any bunny making factory. a very cute, sweet as can be, squeaking in adorable fashion, nestled in with all their siblings baby bunny making factory. siblings? yes. i think there are at least 5 of them in there. my mom and in laws watched me as i squealed with delight peering into their hole. notice my dad was not there. had he been, he definitely would have said something along the lines of, "i know how to fix that rabbit in the garden problem." followed by his maniacal, i-like-to-hunt-and-kill-animals laughter.

anyway, i don't know who is more excited, me or brody? that's who found them all. we were just getting ready to start tackling the overgrown everything when brody squeezed his nose into their nest and pulled one out. i immediately shrieked because i thought he was going to eat him right there, but he just dug back in for more. i guess he was just doing what he was bred to do. my dog is supposed to find holes and pull the animals out of said holes. which is why poor brody is currently tied to a post inside his fenced in backyard. poor dog, but i have to protect the babies!

seriously though, i was secretly wishing that the mom would not want her young anymore so i could start feeding them formula with a syringe. i googled it. it can be done. but alas, she stills cares for them. josh captured a shot of it just so i would hopefully stop harassing the baby bunnies. what was he thinking? i just went outside to check on them and take a couple more photos. thank you jesus. baby bunnies are wonderful things.

we are drowning in phlegm

good parenting

my husband is a great father. while finn loves playing with the mountain of dress up clothes we've collected for him, he doesn't ever put it on himself. instead, he hands us items, one by one, and grunts at us until we listen and put them on. we regularly look like this.

a sudden relapse

i have recently become moderately obsessed with watching hgtv. who am i kidding? i am a straight up seeking-it-out, dvring-every-show, staying-up-way-too-late-watching, starting-to-buy-remodeling-magazines, dreaming-of-candice-olson addict. i went through self administered rehab after we first moved into the house. i was spending 6 hours a day watching every design show i could find and planning on spending thousands of dollars more than we had, so i felt like i needed to get on the road to recovery. i cut my drug cold turkey. while that may work for some, it definitely does not work for me. the second i was tempted, in the form of the new show sarah's house, i knew i was relapsing and i don't care!

the problem is that on these home renovating shows, they have a budget of $30,000....for the front of the house. no joke. sarah (we're on a first name basis) spent 35 grand on staining her brick and adding a couple bushes to the yard. it was gorgeous, don't get me wrong and i wished it was my own house, but my budget is a little over $48 so you can see how this addiction is depressing. there are so many neat little (and big) things i want to change in this house. i have actually become a fan of just going to menards and lowe's to wander around and imagine. hgtv has created a monster. but i can't help myself, i just keep going back for more.

starting the chore list and growing a gut

the doctor told me that finn went from the 38th percentile at his last check-up to the 80th in weight. she asked if he was eating well and trying everything. if she only knew. i thought that finn was so sweet to help out and care for his brody dog. i should always remember that babies are selfish selfish creatures.

and then i was an adult

i don't know why this is, but the number 25 just seems so juvenile, naive, and annoying. yet 26. wow. it really kicks 25's ass. 26 is mature, confident, filled with certainty, knows where it's going. in other words, 26 is old and tired and has wrinkles around its eyes that weren't there a year ago.

i, my friends, am now 26. i never thought an age would make me feel any differently. i didn't understand women who got depressed over *gasp* 30! that being said, i am 26. i haven't hit many of the major markers that cause people concern and fear and apprehension and the need to lie about their age. i am definitely not depressed over my age, but i do feel different. older. i was lumped into the 25 and under category, but just got bumped up. i feel more grown up now than ever. i guess that makes sense. i am more grown up now than ever. and boy, do i feel it in my joints. okay, i'm sure you'll all tired of hearing me talk about how old i am.

i celebrated with wine and pedicures and shopping and some very lovely women and no babies. an entire weekend. so relaxing. minus the cleaning lady in the room directly above us who apparently likes to scrub the floors at 1:30. in. the. morning. the bed was too heavenly to complain too much. at least i was wide awake listening to the scratch scratch scratch at the same time as i was being engulfed in sheets and blankets that feel similar to being hugged by god himself. we could not drag ourselves out of it. in fact, saturday night was a planned 'sake and sushi' night and instead the four of us laid in bed watching pretty woman. saturday night. 4 grown women in 1 bed. it was the perfect birthday.

and then he was a kid

i am not really sure what happened in the last couple months. i remember looking at finn at his first birthday and thinking, 'well, he still acts like a baby. maybe he'll never grow up.' somehow though, this baby became a boy. a living, breathing, fighting, screaming, dressing up in goofiness, climbing over everything, smashing cars together, gaining weight exponentially, farting and laughing, rub his nose and wipe it on his clothes BOY.

he really is totally on point with everything. i get these monthly emails that tell me what my child should and might be doing. i admit that most of the time i want to jump through the computer screen and find whoever sent these. this is ridiculous. they preach that every child is different, so don't worry moms if your child is behind. what?! how can my child be behind if every child is different and i shouldn't worry? stop labeling kids behind then telling us to stop worrying. luckily though, i don't have to worry in most areas. i read the emails, which say, 'your child might start this soon' and the next day he starts. he's on track in every area except speech. this boy makes so much noise, but almost none of it is understandable. at this point, his vocabulary includes: dada, mama (rarely), doggy, puppy, kitty, bye-bye, fishies and lots that he repeats but doesn't remember. his signs for more like it is nobody's business though. he'll start clapping violently if we don't acknowledge that he wants more. he points to his eyes, nose, mouth, ears. he says the sounds for cow and sheep.

but yeah, it's kind of awesome now. i love that i can say things and he understands. it is amazing the stuff he learns from just watching us, like how he took brody's dish to the closet and dumped a handful of food into it yesterday. pretty awesome. non-awesome things include that he gets frustrated if i don't understand him and smacks me in the face. or that he thought he was big enough to go down the stairs by himself and barrel rolled all the way to the bottom. or that he can turn on the waterworks almost instantly because he knows i'll cave (i'm working on myself, i promise). or how he now will finish his breakfast, get down, then want to sit on a normal chair to finish my breakfast. i'm starting to get it though. this is the stage i was waiting for. this is where motherhood starts to get really exciting.